Independence, By HENRY DAVID THOREAU

My life is more civil and free Than any civil polity. Princes--keep your realms And circumscribed power, Not wide as are my dreams, Nor rich as is this hour. What can you give which I have not? What can you take which I have got? Can you defend the dangerless? Can you inherit nakedness? To all true wants time’s ear is deaf, Penurious states lend no relief Out of their pelf-- But a free soul--thank God-- Can help itself. Be sure your fate Keeps apart its state-- Not linked with any band-- Even the nobles of the land In tented fields with cloth of gold-- No place doth hold But is more chivalrous than they are. And sigheth for a nobler war. A finer strain its trumpet rings-- A brighter gleam its armour flings. The life that I aspire to live No man proposeth me-- No trade upon the street Wears its emblazonry.

From “Henry David Thoreau: The Poet’s Delay,” illustrated with watercolors by Winslow Homer and John Singer Sargent and other masterworks from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Rizzoli: $27.50; 144 pp.).

1992 by The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Reprinted by permission.